


Hair Like Silk

by TfWhyNoy



Category: Hollow Knight
Genre: F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, This is big au thing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-19 14:16:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22245712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TfWhyNoy/pseuds/TfWhyNoy
Summary: So someone had an idea for Pk reincarnating as a human and showing a human Hollownest. I got inspired, so Pk will (eventually) show his human significant other his old kingdom and tell them who he used to be.
Relationships: Canon/OC
Comments: 5
Kudos: 73





	1. A Seriously Bad Burn

“A-lo-veh-la”  
“Aloe vela”  
He struggled to make “ra” sound in most words, even after two years. Still, he did his best to pronounce the foreign names as he watered his small succulent garden. His newest addition was to help with the recent sunburns he had been collecting over the summer, even though it didn’t really produce enough to help with the large one he had now.  
Guilt began to drip into him as he watered the center plant. It was an Echeveria, though he more often used the colloquial name “Lola”. He hadn’t realized it when he got it but the white succulent surrounded by greens and pinks reminded him of his old life far too much.  
He left for a reason, his old kingdom would be better without him, without a king who did nothing but make one mistake after another. His old love would be better without him, with Dryya to protect and comfort her she would heal with time, eventually moving past him and the pain he caused her and so many of their children.  
With his old enemy taking over the kingdom, it will soon fall and rebuild itself when a new ruler takes over. Whether it be the Radiance or some other entity anyone would likely be able to fix the issues that had brought it down. He already proved himself to be inept with the Radiance taking over again and again.  
“Your back hurt too much to wear a shirt today Osric?”  
He jumped slightly at the name. It still felt strange to be called something other than king. He used to be the Pale King for centuries. Now he was just Osric, a peculiar yet normal enough human to hold a simple job to help support the one he loved.  
“Yes, I figured you wouldn’t mind if I just walked around in shorts.”  
His entire upper body and face was a painful rosy pink. He had heard of sunburns before but had wrongly assumed that he wouldn’t need to worry about it. With the aching pains, he put his silvery hair in a ponytail to keep it up and wore nothing but a pair of oversized green shorts held up with a pleather belt.  
“Could you help put aloe vela on my back? I can’t reach it myself normally, let alone like this.”  
Izzy flashed her beautiful smile, her deep brown eyes shining so bright as she spoke. “I always love the way you pronounce things you know? Something as simple as a plant almost sounds like a magic spell or something, ”  
“That’s not how spells work.”  
She raised an eyebrow at that. “How would you know? Are you a wizard or something?” she teased.  
“No, but I am in pain.”  
“Sit down on the couch and I’ll get the gel,” He nodded as she dashed to retrieve the bottle from the cabinets. He set down the little purple elephant watering can before going into the living room to sit on the arm of the couch.  
“I should have guessed this would happen, ” Izzy said as she returned, bottle in hand. She squeezed the bottle a translucent teal gel began to ooze into her darker skin, “You’re so pale you make Snow White look tan.”  
Osric gasped as the cold gel met his back, jolting forward slightly in his seat.  
Izzy laughed a melodic tone. ”Is that cold?”  
He nodded, white ponytail bouncing at the movements. “Incredibly, but it feels good.”  
“That’s good. How’s your chest feeling?”  
Osric grimaces as he looked down, “Not as bad as my back, I can barely feel it in comparison.”  
“Dwaaa, my poor man,” she teased. Quickly rubbing all the gell into his skin in silence.  
“Okay, I got all of your back and I need to start on dinner. You feeling okay now?” He nodded as she carefully closed the bottle and tossed it onto the couch. With only a few of her long strides she and walked into the kitchen with Osric following behind her.  
Izzy washed her hands, the gel falling down the drain and being washed away by water.  
“You okay? You’ve seemed to be in a bit of a funk as of late,” She worried. Even as she began to pull out miss-matched bowls and a cutting board and set them onto the counters she glanced back at Osric, waiting for a response.  
“I’m fine darling,” He faked a smile towards Izzy.  
She pressed her lips into a thin line, eyes narrowed in doubt while pulling out vegetables from the fridge, “Usually when people say they’re fine they aren’t. What’s going on?”  
“I…” He thought of a way to phrase things without letting her know everything. “You know how you talked about introducing me to your family?” “Are you worried about my dad? He’s a complete softy despite how intimidating he may look. He’d love you, I’m sure of it” She tried to reassure.  
“No, it’s not that,” he shook his head, “I just don’t know if I really have a family to show you. You know I never really had parents and my other family…” He grimaced and shriveled slightly, “I left so they could be happier without me.”  
Izzy paused for a moment to think before she spoke. “Why do you think they were better without you?”  
“I’d rather not talk about that right now if that’s fine with you.”  
“Of course it’s fine!” Izzy put the food down and placed a hand on his. “I would never force you to talk about something you don’t want to!”  
“So you’re making salads for dinner?” Osric changed the subject, something they were both grateful for.  
“Oh! Ya, in the summer mom would get so hot she felt too lazy to do cooking on the stove so she would just chop up lunch meats cheese and some veggies and toss it in a bowl.” She smiled as she dropped the last of the cucumber into the bowl.  
“Anything I can do to help with?”  
“Of course, but you’ll need to wash your hands first.”  
He placed a chaste kiss on Izzy’s forehead. “Anything for you love.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izzy finally confronts Osric on always dodging every question she asks about his past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the beginning goes in-depth about sunburn skin peeling. If you want to skip that there is very little description after the first dialogue starts so just look for the quotation marks; Osric starts talking pretty early on.

Osric was used to being a bug, even if he wasn’t the average he was used to molting about once a year. As a human, he didn’t need to worry about that since the skin naturally sheds as it died or the body grew. It was a nice plus to not have to expend the energy on pulling yourself out of your old shell. One thing he didn’t like about the human’s way of dealing with damaged skin though, was a peeling sunburn.  
He kneeled in a straight posture as Izzy sat behind him, pulling at the skin that he couldn’t reach.  
I felt disgusting. The quite sound of large yet thin strips being quickly pulled of make him cringe; the following sound of it sticking to and being pulled from fingers didn’t help in the slightest to settle his turning stomach.  
“How do you take any satisfaction in this?” A shiver ran down his spine despite his attempts to stay still. Izzy’s cold fingers only touched him for a moment before peeling another piece of skin.  
“I don’t really know why. It’s just one of those things that are oddly satisfying you know?”  
He shook his head. “I can’t imagine a world where peeling dead skin would be an enjoyable experience.” He dug his nails into the cloth of his shorts to stay still.  
“At least this means your sunburn is healing.”  
“I’m never going outside without sunscreen again if I can avoid this again.”  
Izzy laughed as she pulled another strip and added it to the small ball of dead skin she had on the floor.  
“How many more times will I have to deal with this?”  
Izzy shifted to be on his left after being peeling everything on his back.  
“Just once.”  
“Thank wyrm,” Osric sighed.  
“Worm?”  
He paused for a moment before realizing what he said. It was a habit he picked up from those around him. It was rare, apparently rare enough for Izzy to never hear him say it before.  
“What?”  
“I’ve never heard someone say worm instead of god before,” Izzy laughed for a moment, “When did you start saying that?”  
‘About three centuries ago’ Osric thought.  
“I don’t know. I kinda picked it up from people around me I guess. I clearly don’t say it often though.”  
“Was that a common thing where you’re from?”  
He glances to the side for a moment before speaking. “I guess…” Izzy looked visibly deflated when he looked back. “Is something wrong?”  
She slouched slightly, avoiding Oscric’s gaze. “Whenever I ask something about your past or anything before you met me you always act the same way. You pause for a moment, looking confused and flustered, before giving some vague answer or just dodging the question,” She straightens up, arms now falling in her lap as she looked at the floor.  
“I just want to know about you. You’re so strange and I’ve been putting most of my questions aside hoping you’d open up at some point but I’ve been dating you for a year and living with you for a whole month and the most I’ve gotten is that you maybe have a family, a lot of people look up to you because you taught them something you refuse to tell me, and you feel really guilty about something.” She took a deep breath, slumping slightly. “I’m not demanding your every little detail but please, tell me something. Do you just not trust me? I won’t hate you for something you did I just…” Her shoulders stiffened as she grabbed fistfuls of her skirt.  
“I’m sorry,” Osric took a breath in and sighed. “I just don’t know how to explain everything.”  
“Tell me anything! Even if it doesn’t make sense I just want you to start telling me something,” Izzy finally looked up at him, her mouth was open in a desperate frown.  
Osric nodded. “Wyrms are…” it hurt to see her like this but he couldn’t bring himself to tell the whole truth. “They’re a type of higher being, the strongest and most formidable. Higher beings can transform lands and have abilities unique to themselves that no other can copy. Wyrms, spelled with a Y I think, are even stronger. The only way for them to die, to truly die, is to be completely forgotten.”  
Izzy seemed to relax, though Osric could almost see all the questions threatening to spill from her lips.  
“A normal death for a wyrm is used to change; to them, death is just a form of metamorphosis.”  
Izzy nodded, “So you, or at least the people around you, believe in many deities, the most powerful of which or wyrms but not literal worms…” She summarized to herself.  
An awkward silence settled around them. Each looked at the floor between them, following the patterns on the floor in the absence of words.  
Osric took the plunge, “I never meant to leave you knowing so little. I’m sorry.”  
Izzy let out a short sigh, “I mostly just want to know why…”  
“I’m not sure how much you would belive,” Osric slouched slightly, “And even if you believed everything you would likely hate me for what I’ve done.”  
Izzy shot up, eyebrows tightly knitted together. “You can’t just assume everyone will think you’re a terrible person. I’ve been with you this long and you seem to be a good person. Maybe not perfect but who is? You need to have trust in me.”  
Osric closed his eyes and took in a breath before opening them again, “I truly hope you’re right. I don’t know how much I’ll open up but… I’ll try my best to tell you more.”  
“Promise?”  
“I promise.”


End file.
